The truth behind Facebook hacking scams

The truth behind Facebook hacking scams

Hackers love the opportunity to show off their skills and make easy money. That’s why social networks are a prime target for them. They don’t want to snoop around for its own sake, they want personal information that can be used to make dollars. But with good virus protection you can keep them at bay.

Hacking a Facebook account

If you want to hack a Facebook account you might be surprised at the number of web sites offering to do so for free. These ‘generous’ offers are usually accompanied by a little paean of praise and rationale, and typically say something like ‘we are offering a public service and we want to keep our hacking skills sharp.’

However, there’s a deep irony that runs through most of these offers – they’re scams designed to hook people in and take them through to other web sites or get them to apart with money, for example, pay $100 to have a Facebook account hacked.

Hacking a Facebook account requires knowledge and expertise. Some of the most common methods include planting key stroke loggers on the victims computer, phishing, mobile phone hacking, session hijacking and something called side jacking when the victim and hacker are on the same local area network.

But why would someone want to hack into a Facebook account? Well, many people share their deepest secrets with friends online along with interests, hobbies likes and dislikes. And some people somewhere will have an interest in discovering this such as a girlfriend or boyfriend.

Facebook hacking for stealing passwords

However, cyber villains are also interested in hacking accounts. The aim is to steal passwords and account information. It’s often done via a rogue application or some other type of malware such as a key logger or Trojan. It could be that a fake web site has been created that looks like Facebook or another online service and when a user visits they are tricked into logging into the site.

The account can then be used to sift for personal identity information or as a launch pad to bombard friends with requests to visit a fake web site where personal details are harvested. A user may also find that all sorts of strange, inappropriate and pornographic content are being posted on their wall.

How can you be sure your Facebook account is safe?

If you think your account has been hacked you can visit Facebook at this link and it will provide information on what steps you can take. However, the danger is that if you’re account is infected by a virus it may have also wormed itself deeper into your computer. In this case you need to perform an antivirus scan.